Military groups outraged over Taliban war game

Louisa Hearn

A new video game that lets players opt to fight alongside Taliban soldiers against the US in Afghanistan has provoked outrage in Australia and abroad.

Medal of Honor, which is due to launch in October, is a multiplayer game based on an elite group of US soldiers sent to "apply their unique skill sets to a new enemy in the most unforgiving and hostile battlefield conditions of present day Afghanistan".

But the new title from Electronic Arts has incensed the military community for using an ongoing conflict as a source of entertainment, and allowing gamers to pick which side they want to fight with.

Australia has an estimated 1550 troops stationed in Afghanistan and 18 have died in the conflict so far.

Neil James, executive director of the Australian Defence Association, said: “We think it's in very bad taste . . . Australia is at war - not just the defence force - and every citizen has an obligation to not only support the Defence Force but to be sensitive particularly to bereaved families.

“It's unfortunate that people think they can make money by belittling the sacrifice of others. It's also morally dangerous because it is desensitising people to the moral and strategic issues underlying the war,” he said.

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Families of US Troops serving overseas have also condemned the new game. Karen Meredith, the mother of a US soldier who died in Iraq, told Fox News: “Right now we are going into a really, really bad time in Afghanistan ... this game is going to be released in October so families who are burying their children are going to be seeing this.”

“My son didn't get to start over when he was killed – his life was over and I have to deal with that everyday ... it is just not a game,” she said.

Electronic Arts is not the first game publisher to attempt to cash in on an ongoing military campaign.

Atomic Games faced a storm of criticism from UK war veterans when it announced a new game called Six days in Fallujah. The title was widely panned for trivialising the devastating events that went on in the Iraqi city. The title has had trouble attracting a publisher and is yet to be released.

Sony provoked similar outrage when it applied for a US trademark on the term “Shock and Awe” just two days after the US military commenced its bombing campaign in Baghdad.

Sony later chose to withdraw the application, describing it as "an exercise of regrettable bad judgment."

However gaming industry advocates defend the release of games covering controversial topics such as war, on the basis that other entertainment media such as films also commonly depict conflicts as they unfold.

“The vast majority of homes have videogame machines ... so it stands to reason they will bring emotive content to this medium. There is an argument that this entertainment medium allows you to explore wider story and more closely engage with a particular issue,” said Ron Curry, chief executive of the Interactive Game and Entertainment Association of Australia.

He added, however, that when it came to inappropriate content, the IGEA was “very supportive of classification regimes”. “Obviously there is offensive material that shouldn't be out there,” he said.

Whether the game will be released in Australia depends on whether it gets an MA15+ rating from the Australian Classification Board.

Australia's regulatory media environment is unique in that adult-oriented games must either be modified to comply with the MA rating – or be refused classification and effectively banned in Australia.

Colin Jacobs, chairman of free speech lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said “we believe strongly that adults have a right to consume entertainment material they see fit within reason.

“We are now in a situation where publishers try to sneak games in at lower rating so they can be sold in Australia, but that doesn't help anybody. If there was an appropriate rating then adults would have the freedom to play what they wanted.”

Last year, popular shooter game Modern Warfare 2 received a 15+ rating in Australia despite sparking controversy for simulating a terrorist attack from a first-person view, including a scene in which civilians were killed.

Glenn Cupit, a senior lecturer in child development at the University of South Australia and executive for the Australian Council on Children and the Media, said: “People haven't really paid attention to the realities of turning a real situation into a game. I just think it's inappropriate.

“There is an ongoing issue about understanding the reality of the impact of violence. Even if you receive a number of wounds or get killed, you can just restart a game. Matters of the reality of life or disability are glossed over and desensitised.

“There is the argument about freedom of expression and the call for an R-rating but that is just nonsense. We know from observations of the video market that children access material rated way out of what is appropriate for them,” he said.

Although local EA officials have not yet responded to our enquiries, the company has reportedly told US news outlets that Medal of Honor gives gamers the opportunity to play both sides, which it says most people have been doing since childhood.